


love will happen when it wants

by SeptemberSevertana



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bathing/Washing, COVID-19, Communication, F/F, Feelings, Insecurity, Living Together, Love Confessions, Multi, Non-Sexual Intimacy, OT3, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-OT3, and they were quarantined
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24977011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeptemberSevertana/pseuds/SeptemberSevertana
Summary: Twelve hours in the lives of three people in quarantine who love each other more than they thought.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 170





	love will happen when it wants

**Author's Note:**

> hi everybody. the last season of she-ra made me believe in the power of love again, but i couldn't let go of my ships, so here we are with some OT3 stuff. when i first came up with the idea for this, my family had nearly been evacuated due to a forest fire, and i needed to write something cathartic. please stay safe, everyone.
> 
> title from "honesty" by pink sweats (yes i have used it before, i'm predictable as shit) but this was mostly written to "palo santo" by years & years. i hope you enjoy.

It must have been past ten pm when Adora and Catra stumbled through their apartment door, depositing groceries on the kitchen table, taking off their masks and tossing them in the laundry basket. They’d gone to the grocery store right before it closed, militantly sticking to their shopping list, using the self-checkout instead of perusing the aisles for an available employee. Catra washed her hands at the sink, singing in her head. She tapped Adora on the shoulder when she finished, tagging in to finish unpacking the bags. The granola bars had nearly run out, so they’d only grabbed one box, but the cereal had just been restocked. Everything had gone smoothly; they hopefully wouldn’t need to go back for another five or six days. 

Adora looked asleep on her feet. She’d scarcely dried her hands on the dishcloth hanging by the faucet when she draped herself over Catra’s shoulders like a human cloak. “I can take care of the rest of this,” Catra murmured, pressing her lips to the side of Adora’s face, all that was available at this angle. 

Shaking her head, Adora replied, “But you shouldn’t have to.” 

Catra smiled softly. “Check on Glimmer. She was heading to bed when we left.” 

Adora nodded, her fingers stroking against Catra’s collarbone as she unwound her arms and stepped away. Catra shivered a little, grabbing a marker to label the cereal so that her roommates would eat the older cereal first instead of letting it go stale. The granola bars went into a drawer on the right side of the sink. Some of the produce went into the freezer, some went into a darkened corner of the pantry to ensure it stayed fresh. They’d bought rice, probably too much rice, but Glimmer always found ways to make staples interesting. Adora couldn’t cook to save her life, and Catra wasn’t much better, so they relied heavily on Glimmer and multiple takeout apps. 

With the last of the groceries put away, Catra scrubbed a hand on the back of her neck, turning off the kitchen lights and the lamp left on by the couch. Adora had been commandeered to run the razor over her undercut when it got awkwardly long; Glimmer had giggled, running her hand over the top part of Catra’s hair and saying she liked it a little grown out. Adora’s hair and Glimmer’s hair were layered in such a way that no matter how they grew, they still looked purposeful. 

Catra wandered into the guest room, assuming that Adora had gotten distracted making sure Glimmer was properly asleep. But Glimmer wasn’t in bed, in fact, she wasn’t in the room at all. Brow furrowing, Catra walked into her and Adora’s bedroom, noticed the bathroom door was just barely cracked open, and stepped through it. 

Adora sat on the tile floor, leaning against the vanity, eyes trained in front of her. The shower curtain was drawn back; bubbles floated quietly on top of the bathwater, covering its occupant below her shoulders. Glimmer’s hand, two fingers holding her page in her book, was braced against the toilet seat. She’d fallen asleep in the bathtub again. Her hair still had suds in it; Glimmer must have gotten distracted and forgotten to rinse it. 

Glimmer had lost her job and been evicted from her apartment at the very beginning of everything; her lease had almost been up anyway, she had been looking for other places to go, but it had taken an immense toll on her. She packed up everything she could fit into her car and drove to Adora and Catra’s through an unseasonal blizzard, arriving in the middle of the night with tears streaming down her face and snow in her hair. She’d practically collapsed on the couch, her head drying in Adora’s lap as she finally slept. Catra moved all of Glimmer’s stuff into the spare room, making sure that there was breakfast for her to eat when she awoke, bringing her work computer home, making sure that they had enough non-perishable food for at least the first few days. Catra hadn’t wanted to leave Glimmer alone, and neither did Adora. 

They’d lived together, Catra and Adora and Glimmer, ever since. Glimmer kept looking for a job, Catra worked as much as she could to keep them afloat in case Adora lost her job too, and they figured out a new routine, a new normal. In the process, they’d find themselves in each other’s space more, Glimmer smacking kisses on Catra’s cheek as she cooked, Catra’s legs in Adora’s lap as she worked, Adora curled against Glimmer’s chest as she napped. It felt so _natural_ , almost as natural as Catra and Adora felt when they first met. 

And maybe, Adora felt it too. 

“I know you don’t wanna move her,” Catra finally said, scritching her nails gently over Adora’s scalp, “but we can’t all sleep in the bathroom, there’s not enough room. Plus, she’ll get cold in there.” 

Adora nodded, bracing her hand on the edge of the sink to stand up. She pecked Catra on the lips and went to the linen closet for towels. Catra carefully took the book out of Glimmer’s hand and tore off a piece of paper towel to serve as a bookmark. Once the book was safely out of the bathroom and on the nightstand, Catra intercepted Adora and her veritable mountain of just-folded bath towels and took half of them. 

Adora went in first, setting her pile of towels on the toilet seat and grasping Glimmer’s hand. “Hey, you gotta wake up so you can sleep in a real bed, okay?” 

Glimmer grumbled and tried to turn away from the sound, the bubbles sliding away to reveal the tiny wing tattoo on her left shoulder. 

Catra cleared her throat. “Sparkles, you’re gonna get cold if you stay in the bath all night.” 

“I don’t care,” Glimmer whined, pulling Adora’s hand along with hers into the bathwater. Adora’s cheeks abruptly went pink.

Smiling, Catra took a cup down from the cupboard and filled it with warm water from the tap, motioning for Adora to hold Glimmer’s head back. Methodically, she began rinsing all the suds from Glimmer’s hair, Glimmer sighing contentedly all the while. Once her hair was clean, Catra took a towel from Adora’s pile and ran it over Glimmer’s head, carefully drying her hair and face. She ran a comb through Glimmer’s hair; the roots were as dark as Micah’s, from what Catra remembered of him, and growing longer every day, but the pink/purple dye was just as stubborn on the rest of the hair as Glimmer herself. 

“Sweetheart, do you want us to turn on the shower so you can get the rest of the bubbles off, or do you just want to towel down?” Adora asked, the fingers of her stolen hand now running over Glimmer’s knee. 

Glimmer huffed. “You guys already rinsed me, right?” 

Catra, currently fixing Glimmer’s wet hair into a manageable, if lopsided, bun, reasserted, “Whatever you want.” 

Glimmer pulled the plug out of the drain, reaching for the edge of the shower curtain. “I still have soap all over the rest of my body, I might as well rinse it.” Catra felt loathe to move, even though she knew the modesty the three of them had been operating under the past few minutes would be compromised, and the moment would be broken. 

Adora was the first to stand up, carefully unlacing her fingers from Glimmer’s. The water level had gone down far enough that Catra could see tiny stretch marks on Glimmer’s legs. “Just yell if you need us,” Adora said quietly. The sleeves of her shirt were soaked and the veins of her wrists seemed to glow blue in the light. She hesitated, then bent down to press a lingering kiss onto Glimmer’s forehead. “I’m going to get ready for bed,” she directed at Catra, who simply nodded. She didn’t know what else to do. 

Once Adora had left the room, and seemed to be clanking around in the kitchen, Glimmer let out a long breath. She drew the shower curtain fully across the length of the bathtub, turning on the shower and letting the water run. “Was she allowed to do that?” Glimmer asked, a dark hint to her tone. Catra couldn’t look at her, the fabric barrier between them serving to hide both of their expressions. 

She didn’t know what to say that would be truthful for both of them, so she didn’t answer. 

“Sometimes,” Glimmer started. She paused for a moment too long. “Sometimes,” she repeated. 

Catra put her head in her hands. She pressed the pads of her fingers into her temples and tried to breathe. 

Glimmer finished her shower and reached out for a bath towel, which Catra silently handed her from the large stack on her lap. “Did you really take every towel from the linen closet?” she asked, a tad too sharply to be joking. 

Catra couldn’t remember, but she guessed they had. 

Snorting, Glimmer smiled a little, darker mood suddenly gone. “Okay, I need to dry off, any chance you can get me some pajamas?” 

Nodding, Catra deposited the rest of the towels on the section of countertop by the sink, raking a hand through her hair as she shut the bathroom door behind her. Adora was pulling on a red sleep shirt near her side of the bed and turned to look at Catra as she came into the room. 

“She needs some pajamas.” 

Adora wordlessly dug through her drawers, handing over a pair of Catra’s drawstring sweatpants and a t-shirt Adora had bought and worn at Pride two years ago. “These should fit.” 

Catra just stared at the clothes in her arms for a minute. “You know what this looks like.” 

Adora reached a hand up to cup Catra’s face. “Is that okay with you?” 

Her thumb kept running over Catra’s cheekbone, over and over again. “I love her,” Catra murmured. “But I love you too, okay? I never stopped.” 

“I feel the same way,” Adora replied, just as quiet. 

“She might not, though,” Catra choked out. Her eyes felt like they were burning, like she’d scraped her fingernails over them. “One person is hard enough, but two? You met when you were having your personal growth and you were doing well, and Glimmer and I met when I dumped a vodka cranberry on her dress and then threw up on her shoes.” 

“You have a much better relationship now, lots of people start out rocky when they first meet.” Adora paused. “What are you scared of?” 

Catra said her next words scarcely louder than breathing. “That we tell her and she leaves. That she never wants to see us again. I don’t know if I could handle that.” She stood up, the pajamas in her arms. “We can talk about this later.” 

Adora didn’t call after her, just let her hand hang in the air for a moment too long. 

Catra knocked on the bathroom door and Glimmer opened it, a cloud of steam exiting. “Thanks,” she said, grabbing the clothes from Catra and quickly shutting the door behind her. Catra couldn’t bring herself to move. Adora had to come forward, take her hand, and lead her back. 

“Go to sleep,” Adora whispered, carefully divesting Catra of her street clothes, tossing them into the laundry hamper, and redressing her in sleep clothes. “I’ll talk to her if she needs anything before she goes to bed, okay?” 

Catra curled up in the middle of the bed, burrowing into the pillows as deep as she could without suffocating. She felt a kiss on the top of her hair. 

“I love you.” 

…

She had dreams that Glimmer had packed her bags, was shouting, was angry, and no matter how tightly Adora held her, it felt like something had been ripped free from her chest and wouldn’t return. 

She had dreams she was crying, sitting in the middle of the barren-walled guest room, fingers digging painfully into her scalp. 

She had dreams of her and Adora in twenty years, holding each other in the corner of a party while Glimmer laughed on the dance floor with her constantly-morphing partner. 

She felt like something inside of her had died. 

…

Catra woke up to an empty bed. There was a soft indent where Adora must have slept, so she had likely just awoken. 

Blearily, she fumbled around on the floor for a hoodie. Catra pulled on the closest one, splashed with Adora’s university logo, and ran a hand through her hair until it seemed less messy. Her undercut was getting long again, she mused. 

She wandered into the kitchen, trying to get the sleep residue out of her eyes, trying to get her heart rate from before to slow down. Nothing drastic had happened yet. Maybe nothing drastic ever would happen. Catra didn’t need to be so scared, not in the daytime. 

Glimmer was at the table, cradling a bowl of cereal (thankfully not the brand new cereal) between her arms. Adora stood impatiently in front of the coffee pot as it brewed. 

“Good morning,” said Catra, rubbing Glimmer’s back and walking around the counter to press a kiss to Adora’s shoulder. 

“The coffee is too slow,” Adora muttered unhappily. 

“You do this every morning,” Glimmer replied, taking a disgruntled bite of her cereal. “The coffee isn’t going to brew faster if you glare at it like it kicked your puppy.” 

“She’s right, you know.” Catra smiled at Glimmer, who smiled back, almost shocked. 

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” said Adora, pouting. 

Catra suddenly felt her breathing grow easier. This was normal, this banter happened all the time. Nobody had messed up too badly last night. 

The rest of breakfast went in relative quiet as Adora nursed her humongous mug of coffee and Glimmer finished her cereal, Catra fixing herself a batch of scrambled eggs and trying to eat them as calmly as possible. It felt like there was lightning crawling under her skin, sparking out of the tips of her fingers. 

Adora caught her eye as she soaked her egg pan in the sink, her hand just at the small of Catra’s back. Glimmer had gone into her room to get dressed, closing the door behind her. “Do we want to ask her today?” Adora asked softly. 

Catra took a deep breath. “If we don’t, I think I might explode.” 

“I know you’re nervous about this. I’ll never bring it up again if you don’t want me to. We do this together, on our own time, or we don’t do it at all, okay?” Adora’s thumb slid into the divot at the base of Catra’s spine. “Whatever you decide is okay with me.” 

Catra nodded, leaning into Adora’s touch. “We won’t know if we don’t try. Either she says yes and we are all together or she says no and we drop it. We’ve been dancing around this for a while, for too long probably, and we have to be fair to ourselves and her.” 

Adora pecked the back of Catra’s neck, turning her around so they were facing each other. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Catra took Adora’s hand and led her to Glimmer’s room, knocking quietly on the door. “Hey, can we talk?” she asked. She knew that phrasing would likely put Glimmer on edge, but she wasn’t sure how to go about this. 

The door opened a few seconds later, Glimmer redoing the bun that Catra had made the night before. “Yeah, what do you guys wanna talk about?” Her expression was carefully blank, only slivers of worry creasing her eyes. 

Adora herded them all to the couch, but Glimmer sat in the armchair and pulled her knees into her chest. Catra and Adora awkwardly perched on the edge of the couch cushions, hands still clasped together in a sort of anchor. 

“It’s about…” Adora trailed off. “It’s about us.” 

“You and Catra ‘us’ or me and you and Catra ‘us’?” Glimmer asked defensively. Catra had to physically stop herself from getting up and pulling Glimmer into her arms. 

“All three of us,” Adora replied. She gestured with her hand, flicking it between the armchair and the couch, the coffee table acting as a barrier. 

Catra knew what this looked like; they probably should have talked about how they were going to ask Glimmer beforehand because this...she hoped this would end better than Glimmer’s posture suggested. 

“Fine. Whatever. All three of us. Spit it out.” Glimmer steadfastly stared at a spot on the kitchen floor. “You could have just told me you wanted me to move out, you didn’t need to make a big deal about-”

“We’re in love with you,” Catra blurted out. 

Glimmer froze. 

“We want to be with you, we want to date you properly. We want you to be part of our family,” Catra continued, feeling like all her sentences were tripping over each other. “If that...makes you uncomfortable or you don’t feel the same way or...or you’re angry, you can move out if you want to, we won’t stop you. But it’s something I’ve been thinking about for...for months. And,” she turned to Adora, who nodded silently, “she’s been thinking about it for just as long, if not longer.” She paused, looking at her and Adora’s hands, both white-knuckled. “Um…” Her face felt damp and there was water dripping off of her chin but she didn’t dare move, for fear that the quiet spell around the rest of the room would be broken. “We’re in love with you.” 

The room hung in silence for a few moments, Glimmer having turned her gaze to the left arm of the chair, Adora’s head on Catra’s shoulder, leaving wet spots in her tank top, Catra trying her best to stay still. 

“Is she telling the truth?” Glimmer finally murmured. 

Adora’s head flew up. “Yes. Catra’s telling the truth. She’s in love with you, I’m in love with you. We want to be with you. But if you don’t want that, we’ll drop it right now, you never have to hear about it again, okay? Whatever you want,” and her voice mirrored the night before, Adora on the bathroom floor with her fingers laced through Glimmer’s and Catra’s hands in her hair. Catra thought that given the opportunity, both of them would have gladly climbed into the bathtub with Glimmer and kissed her until she realized how loved, how dear she was to them. Would’ve given her anything she asked for. 

Glimmer held her knees closer to her chest and Catra braced herself. “I love you too.” 

And it felt like getting stabbed, because her first thought was that Glimmer only meant Adora. It made a certain degree of sense, in those few split seconds. They’d been antagonistic for years, Catra swanning through university parties just drunk enough to find everything terribly funny, and Glimmer just drunk enough to be angry all the time, the two of them spitting at each other like snakes. Adora kept the peace, always had, just enough for Catra to see how unwaveringly loyal and strong Glimmer could be, and she supposed, enough for Glimmer to find redeeming factors in Catra as well. Adora and Catra had fallen together as two people with too much history do, and Glimmer trusted them enough to cross state lines in a blizzard for a place to stay. But Glimmer didn’t want her. She’d only ever let her eyes follow Adora through bars, turning in the next second to spit venom, and Catra would spit right back. There was no reason for her to want Catra too. There was no reason that Glimmer would want to pull Catra’s hair back and climb into the tub with her and give her anything, everything. 

It must have shown on her face because in the next moments, Adora was pulling her into her arms, Glimmer springing from the armchair to kneel at Catra’s feet and run her hands over Catra’s thighs in a calming, repetitive motion. “Sweetheart, why are you crying?” Adora asked, fingers running through Catra’s hair. 

“I can go,” Catra said, trying to dislodge herself from the couch, from the people around her. “I’m sorry, I don’t need to be here.” 

“You can’t leave!” Glimmer said, desperate. “Please, please don’t leave.” 

“Why do you want to leave?” Adora asked softly, coaxingly. 

“Because she loves you,” answered Catra. “She doesn’t love me.” 

“When the fuck did I say that?” Glimmer’s voice was so gentle as she sat up on her knees to hold Catra’s face in her hands. “I love you. Both of you. Too. I was just so scared that you didn’t love me back.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, ‘oh’,” Glimmer repeated, a smile breaking across her face. “I love you, Catra. And I love Adora. And I want to be with both of you.” 

“Are you sure?” Adora asked, as if Catra’s vulnerability had bled over to her. 

“I’m sure.” Glimmer leaned in, quietly asking permission, and Catra practically collapsed into the kiss, letting herself breathe deeply for the first time in what felt like months, since they’d brushed snow out of Glimmer’s hair that night and wrapped her in blankets until she fell asleep. 

When the kiss broke, Catra looked up to see Adora, the softest and most in love she’d ever seen her. 

“I can’t let you go without kissing you too,” Glimmer said, a tiny glint of teasing in her eyes as she pulled Adora down. They were beautiful together, Adora’s blonde hair tumbling into Glimmer’s dyed hair as if it couldn’t help itself, Adora’s eyes closed, her lashes brushing across Glimmer’s cheeks. 

Catra loved them so much her chest could have burst open. 

“How is this going to work with us?” Glimmer finally asked after everyone had gotten too kiss-drunk to move. 

“We have to be honest. Even if we want to keep something about us inside because we’re afraid, we can’t. This doesn’t work unless we all communicate and listen to each other,” Adora said, poking Catra and Glimmer gently on their foreheads. 

“I need to work on that,” Catra offered softly. 

“We’ll work on that together,” Glimmer added, taking Catra’s hand and Adora’s hand and kissing both their knuckles. 

“I want to fight for us.” Catra looked at both of them. “I want to keep fighting for us.” 

Adora smiled like the sun. Glimmer hid her face in Catra’s lap. 

“We’ll fight for you too,” Adora said. 

Glimmer pressed her lips to Catra’s hip. “Always.”


End file.
